Once again it’s time for us to cast an eye over the Sky Sports game. We take our usual look at the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries and transfer trends, before rolling out our Watchlist and assessing the future plans for the Scout team.
Gameweek 31 Man of the Match Awards
Listed below are the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters from last weekend’s fixtures achieving the Man of the Match award (worth an additional five points).
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Crystal Palace vs QPR | Yannick Bolasie |
| Arsenal vs West Ham | Olivier Giroud |
| Leicester vs Hull | Jamie Vardy |
| Sunderland vs Aston Villa | Gabriel Agbonlahor |
| West Brom vs Stoke | Darren Fletcher |
| Burnley vs Man City | George Boyd |
| Chelsea vs Southampton | Fraser Forster |
| Everton vs Newcastle | Aaron Lennon |
| Man United vs Tottenham | Marouane Fellaini |
| Swansea vs Liverpool | Jordan Henderson |
One goalkeeper, six midfielders and three forwards picked up the awards this week. Watchlist tip for the last few weeks Olivier Giroud was one of the more highly owned players amongst them but still only sits in 4.7% of teams. Jordan Henderson, with 6.9% ownership, picked up his fourth award of the season as he continues to flourish in the “Gerrard role”. Fraser Forster was the player with the highest ownership to win the award, his second of the season – he currently sits on 15% ownership. Darren Fletcher (4.8m) is also worth a mention here as he picked up his second award under Tony Pulis – Sky seem to have taken a liking to his battling qualities for the Baggies outfit.
Gameweek 31 Bonus Points
Five goalkeepers achieved bonus points from producing five or more saves. Tom Heaton and Mark Schwarzer were two of those and both also grabbed a clean sheet to earn nine points each. Robert Green is the busiest keeper in the league having racked up 26 bonus points over the season.
In defence, 12 players grabbed bonus, eight for tackles and four for passes completed. Tottenham full-back Danny Rose was one of the beneficiaries and racked up an impressive seven tackles against Manchester United. Pablo Zabaleta is still leading the way for defenders with 20 bonus points.
In midfield there were 16 beneficiaries in total: seven for tackling and nine for passes. Former bonus king Aaron Ramsey was the closest to picking up both, missing out on tackling by just one completed challenge. Nemanja Matic is still the game’s overall highest bonus point earner with 42 points credited.
Two forwards picked up bonus for tackling this week, having completed four challenges apiece. Sammy Ameobi and Steven Fletcher were the men in question and will come as a welcome bonus to their small number of owners. Wayne Rooney leads the way for bonus amongst forwards with eight additional points.
Fantasy Football Scout members can access all information regarding bonus points using player stats and clicking the Sky Sports tab.
The Transfer Trends
Top Transfers Out
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 9.8 | 6.5% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.5 | 5.2% |
| Downing | West Ham | 6.2 | 3.8% |
| di Maria | Man United | 8.6 | 3% |
| Pelle | Southampton | 7.4 | 2.8% |
There are some brave decisions here, with close to 12% getting rid of either Sergio Aguero or Alexis Sanchez. Both players have been sensational this season but have tailed off in recent weeks and it looks like Fantasy managers’ patience is starting to wear thin – ahead of clashes against West Brom and Newcastle respectively, it could be a tense 90 minutes for those 12%. Stewart Downing, Angel di Maria and Graziano Pelle make up the remaining five most transferred out.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Costa | Chelsea | 9.5 | 6.7% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 6.7 | 5.7% |
| Sturridge | Liverpool | 9.8 | 4% |
| Henderson | Liverpool | 7.3 | 3.5% |
| Coutinho | Liverpool | 7.5 | 3.5% |
Diego Costa and Harry Kane continue to pick up suitors ahead of some favorable fixtures. The other three spots all go to Liverpool players as Monday night’s trip to Swansea meant they were targeted for extra players/captains in that week. Although Liverpool have a tough home clash against Man United this week, their fixtures pick up dramatically after that and all three players listed here look good options moving forward.
The average amount of transfers remaining amongst the top 1,000 currently is 5.7 – good to know if you are carrying significantly more and want to put the pressure on your rivals.
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Costa | Chelsea | 9.5 | 15.9% |
| Rooney | Man United | 9.4 | 9.3% |
| Aguero | Man City | 9.8 | 7.4% |
| Fabregas | Chelsea | 8.6 | 6.5% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.5 | 5.8% |
The same five players as last week in the same order backs up our theory that the vast majority of these players have been left as captain in dead teams. Having said this, all these options still represent a threat going into this weekend and could still have a significant impact on the leaderboards.
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with sub-5% ownership that I think could be good options in the coming weeks to climb the rankings. These will be looked at in three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget. These names evolve with fixtures and form and offer Fantasy managers a nudge in hopefully the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Jeffrey Schlupp, 5.0m, 0.6% | Kyle Naughton, 5.5m, 0.3% | Martin Skrtel, 7.0m, 3.8% |
| Midfielder | Ki Sung-Yeung 5.0m, 3.7% | Sadio Mane, 5.8m, 2.7% | Oscar, 8.2m, 4% |
| Forward | Diafra Sakho, 6.9m, 1.1% | Christian Benteke, 8.1m, 0.6% | Olivier Giroud, 8.9m, 4.6% |
My Team
Fabianski
Lescott Bertrand Dawson
Hazard Sigurdsson Fabregas Mane
Aguero Kane© Sanchez
ITB: 0.2m
Transfers remaining: 9/40
Last week’s points: 36
Overall points: 1680
Rank: 202
Notes
Up to 202nd overall after a low scoring week across the Fantasy games in general. My double West Brom defence of Craig Dawson and Joleon Lescott was the highlight as they brought in 14 points between them. The three concerns in my team currently are Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez – a sentence I didn’t think I would be uttering. I’ll probably ship Fabregas for a Liverpool midfielder in the coming weeks, with the Monday night match on April 13 penciled in to maximize captains. Aguero and Sanchez have great fixtures this week and I’ll keep the faith for now. I don’t have the luxury of transfers to be shipping them out but will be watching closely to see if, like the 12% above-mentioned managers, I need to part company.
Captain plan
It’s fairly straight forward this week and I expect most will have the same plans as myself. For Saturday’s matches, I’m locked into Harry Kane for his tie at home to Leicester, hopefully he can rediscover some form after the poor showing against Man United.
On Sunday, I will give the armband to Eden Hazard for Chelsea’s trip to the KC stadium – a move I expect many will make unless they have the added temptation of Diego Costa in their squad.
It’s worth noting that Gameweek 33 is a blank week, so if you fancy a punt with your captain this Sunday you can swap the armband for free in preparation for Gameweek 34.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and we’re currently topping the Private League rankings. With a £1,000 prize to the winner, you’d be mad not to get involved. To join, visit Sky Sports Fantasy Football and key in League Name: FFScout, League Code: 8009000.
The Fantasy Football Club
This Friday The Fantasy Football Club show, where you can catch Fenners and Merse at 18:30 SkySports One HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, quizzing former Manchester United keeper Peter Schmeichel and asking former Arsenal centre-back for his #One2Eleven.
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